Seniors Renea Helmberger and Sydney Tanner have ended high school side by side – as Valedictorian and Salutatorian.  From seventh grade to senior year, the two have worked together to make their academic experience memorable and finish strong.

“The key to being successful is making sacrifices,” Helmberger said. ”Sometimes you’ve got to spend time on what you don’t want to do and write that essay at 3 a.m. instead of going straight to sleep.”

Helmberger, valedictorian, and Tanner, salutatorian, have not only worked vigorously academically, but have also been a part of numerous school groups together, including National Honor Society, Spanish Honor Society, Student Council, Cross Country and Robotics.

“Being so involved with school really added to the high school experience,” Tanner said.

Despite being head to head in rank, Helmberger and Tanner say that there has been no sense of competition or negative effect on their friendship.

“We have always motivated each other and been at each other’s side,” Helmberger said. “We helped each other with difficult classes such as pre cal.”

Despite their five-year friendship, the duo will be parting ways this coming fall. Tanner is attending Furman University located in South Carolina while Helmberger is attending the University of Houston. Although the two will be over 14 hours apart, they both say that their friendship will not be affected.

“I’m not worried about our friendship at all,” Helmberger said. “If anything I think it will strengthen our friendship.”

Overall, Helmberger and Tanner say that their high school experience and academic success was strengthened by their friendship.

“I don’t know if I’d be where I am now without each other’s support,” Tanner said.